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HSBC to Pay Record Settlement to Department of Justice

$1.92 billion will settle investigations.

HSBC(NYSE:HSBC) will pay a record $1.92 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a long-running investigation into its lack of compliance with money laundering laws and economic sanctions, the company said in a statement.

The settlement includes a deferred prosecution agreement, an accord under which one party pledges to implement certain measures in lieu of standard prosecution. The bank has been tasked to improve its oversight; an independent party is to monitor the progress over the five-year duration of the agreement.

Stuart Gulliver, group chief executive with HSBC, said in a statement: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes." The banks said it has also "reached agreement to achieve a global resolution with all other US government agencies that have investigated HSBC's past conduct related to these issues and anticipates finalising an undertaking with the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority shortly."

This is the third time since 2003 that HSBC has been penalized for failures in compliance and control, Reuters reports.

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Eric has been writing about stocks and finance since the mid-1990s, when he lived in Prague, Czech Republic. Over the course of a varied career, he has also been a radio newscaster, an investment banker, and a bass player in a selection of rock and roll bands. A native New Yorker, he currently lives in Los Angeles.